~ Gardening Basics ~

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GARDENING BASICS

A Good garden set-up is very important to attracting the more valuable wildlife, which will help you with your total diamond count for the wildlife levels. It also helps you get diamonds needed for diamond dusting your plants and for buying things like special pots. Here are a few things you can do to make sure your garden is set-up as well as it can be:

Planning your GardenYou move up Garden Levels by growing the required plants in your garden and harvesting them. To see which plants you've already harvested, visit your Garden and click the 'Show All Plants Harvested' link on the lower right hand side, part way down the page. Remember these key points and visit our Leveling up Guide for step-by-step help. It will really help.

Planning Ahead:Remember that plants have zero effect (positive or negative) while still growing, they must be Fully Grown (FG) so while you are attracting one type of wildlife,you can already start growing plants in preparation for the next thing you want to try attracting (a good idea if it's a long-growing bonsai or you don't want to spend the diamonds to DD them!) It's your choice whether to Diamond Dust your plants or wait for them to grow so your garden is always attracting something. Consult our Leveling Guide to seewhether you can leave some of your plants in their attracting stage while you wait for others to become 'Fully Grown' and you will always have something otherthan M&M's coming to your garden.

Patience: It will take time, effort, patience, skill, and luck to attract/spot all the different types of wildlife, so please don't expect to be able to do it all in the first few weeks or months! The achievement of eventually spotting the rarest animals will be worth it :)

Doubling Up Flowers: Growing multiples of the same flower will increase the overall attraction power. It is always a good idea to have more than one attracting plant, even if only one is needed for the next level. It helps to attract more of that particular wildlife to your garden, and it also reduces the number of M&Ms that will show up. It really makes a difference having 3 or 4 of the attracting plant instead of only one for the amount of wildlife you are attempting to attract. Just make sure you don't need any deterrent plants to keep out wildlife that may also be attracted to those particular plants, if you are looking for something specific.It is imperative you do this to attract the rarer wildlife!

Remember Seasonal WildlifeThere are some Seasonal wildlife in the wildlife guide. Their attracting plants are only available at certain times of the year, so you might want to take a break from leveling and attract those when they are available. If you miss them, you will have to wait an entire year before they are available again!

Doubling Up Food: You can have up to 2 feeding tables in your Garden, but it's important to note that leaving double food out doesn't mean double attraction power for rare animals, it just means that double the amount of wildlife will come in the same time period. You still need to grow your plants wisely in order to attract the rare wildlife!

Using The Right Feeding Table: Using the correct feeding table is very important! Many wildlife can only reach the low table - so you won't get them visiting if you only have their food out on the raised tables. But if the wildlife you're trying to attract is able to feed from either table, then it's often best to use the raised one, because the competition from other wildlife will be less (for example, neither white mice nor pygmy mice can reach the raised table. [Hint: All Mythological wildlife can feed from either table, so to increase your chances, use the raised table when attracting them!]

Timing:There's no point in having expensive food in your Garden if you don't time it with the right flowers to attract interesting wildlife - it will just be eaten by M&M's!

Keeping Out M&M's: Magical Mushrooms will help to deter M&M's (Mice & Mallards) from your Garden (with varying degrees of success-the more "advanced" level of mushroom, the greater their deterrent power) You should always have the highest available "fully grown" (FG) Mushroom in your garden. As soon as it is 'Ready for Harvest' (RFH), make sure you have attracted at least one of the mythological wildlife that is attracted to that particular RFH mushroom, then harvest and plant the next level of mushroom. If the next level mushroom is not available for you yet (if you haven't spotted the right mythological wildlife in another garden or reached the next wildlife level) just go ahead and replant the current one (and Diamond Dust to FG if you can spare the DD) as it always helps deter unwanted M&Ms as long as its "fully grown". The other thing you must do is grow the right plants to ensure maximum attraction for other animals, and hope that they get there before the M&M's!

Your Own Garden: You can spot wildlife in your own Garden, but you only get the reward once. It is credited to your "Wildlife spotted in your Garden" total, but not to your "Wildlife spotted in other Gardens" total.

Concentrate Your Efforts:If you plant lots of different flowers, trying to attract lots of different wildlife all at once, you may find that the attraction power for each type of wildlife is so weak that you endup only attracting M&M's! So focus your efforts on attracting one type of wildlife at a time by growing several of the plants which attract it. (Remember that to attract some types of wildlife, you may find that you also need to grow plants to help keep other wildlife out!) Try dedicating your garden to the Kiwi, or the AKP, or the Red Squirrel. Those are some of the easier "high diamond" wildlife to attract. Whichever you choose, just be sure you use the right platter, the right food, and always have the highest level fully grown (FG) mushroom available.

Growing/Wilting Plants:Plants have zero attraction effect while they are in their initial growth phase, or while they are wilting. They only have effect when Fully Grown (FG)/ flowering or sometimes when they are (RFH) Ready for Harvest i.e....bearing fruit.